The frontline region’s acting governor left Kiev’s troops open for attack, Konotop head Artyom Semenikhin has accused
Konotop Mayor Artyom Semenikhin has accused the head of the Sumy regional military administration, Vladimir Artyukh of being responsible for making a gathering of Ukrainian soldiers in the border city a target for a supposed Russian missile strike.
Sumy is a frontline city bordering the Russian Kursk Region, situated just a few miles away from the fighting. According to local authorities, a cruise missile strike on Sunday left over 20 people dead and more than 80 wounded.
Speaking in a Facebook stream on Sunday, Semenikhin, a member of the neo-Nazi party Svoboda and the head of a nearby town of Konotop accused Artyukh of being complicit in the deaths of Ukrainians in the attack.
“He organized an award ceremony for the soldiers of the 117th brigade in that building. He was warned that this should not be done,” Semenikhin said, adding that he’s risking a lot broaching the subject.
He claimed that none of the soldiers were injured and that the strike only hit civilians who were near the award ceremony at the time.
”Thanks to our long-standing governor Artyukh, we now have victims,” Semenikhin said.
He added that local authorities have begun criminal investigations into who organized the military ceremony, as well as into the strike itself.
”I have no doubt that Mr. Artyukh… will receive an appropriate response from the law enforcement system, law enforcement agencies, and prosecution will begin against him,” Semenikhin said.
Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on reports that a gathering of soldiers was hit.
Earlier in the day, former member of Vladimir Zelensky’s political party, Ukrainian lawmaker Mariana Bezuglaya demanded that officers stop staging troop gatherings, warning that the practice makes service members targets for Russian strikes.
“Do not do roll calls. Do not stage award ceremonies,” she urged Kiev’s military.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on the strike as of Sunday evening.
